Category Archives: Book reviews

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It’s always been my contention that fiction reflects its time and place better than many histories. Shakespeare’s Athens and Italy say more about Elizabethan London than the historical Greece and Italy. In fact, during my MFA defense, I described two … Continue reading →

I first met Mark Bitterman at a food writer’s conference several years back. He gave an impromptu salt tasting that introduced me, and perhaps many of the writers in attendance, to artisan salts. At the time, I remember not being … Continue reading →

OK. So the Chairman has a plan which involves controlling the lives of everyone on earth. There is a lot of rewriting of the Plan, which involves some leftover storylines getting in the way of the current edition, which is … Continue reading →

A review of a book published in 2007 hardly qualifies as a review. It’s just that I was so looking forward to reading the book. I met Kathleen Flinn at a conference last year and I was impressed by what … Continue reading →

What these books have in common is that they read as good as they eat. These are not necessarily the best or most comprehensive cookbooks and they are not necessarily the ones I use today. Sure flavors and techniques are … Continue reading →

These are neither the best cookbooks nor the most trendy. They are simply my personal favorites, books I’ve re-read over and over and dip into again and again. Often, a sentence I’ve written will jump back and remind me of … Continue reading →

I started Jennifer 8 Lee’s The Fortune Cookie Chronicles expecting an informative romp through the world of Chinese restaurants. At first, I got what I was expecting. She begins with the 110 winners of a single Powerball jackpot in 2005, and the … Continue reading →